Vietnam has about 1.75 million child labourers

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam
currently has about 1.75 million labourers who are children or adolescents,
mostly in big cities, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, according
to a Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) official.

Dang Hoa Nam, head of
the Department of Children Protection and Care under the MOLISA, said that 67
percent of the labourers work in agriculture, 16 percent in construction and 17
percent in services.

Nam stressed that the ratio of unschooled children
remained high. As many as 52 percent of the surveyed children have left school,
45.2 percent are still attending school and 2.8 percent have never accessed
schooling.

On average they work
between 11-16 hours a day at low wages. Those who work in restaurants receive the
most of 1.8-2 million VND per month, while many are unpaid, Nam said at a MOLISA conference in Hanoi on December 1 on
guidelines for the prevention of children labourers in 2016-2020.

Participants at the event attributed
the problem to poverty, shortcomings in detecting and handling children
labourers in non-official economic sectors and a confusing definition of children
labourers.

MOLISA Deputy Minister Dao
Hong Lan said that the programme to tackle child labour from 2016 to 2020 was
approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in June this year.

This is a foundation to implement
measures to protect children, she said, noting that models have been set up to equip
children with skills to protect themselves and support their families.

At the same time, inspections
and strict punishments on child labour abuse will be strengthened, along with education
on child abuse prevention.

Lan said that Vietnam
faces many challenges to deal with child labour abuse by 2020, as the awareness
of children, their families and employers remains poor.

She underscored the need to
improve the capacity of law enforcement, as well as mobilise the engagement of all
of society, including children’s families, businesses, trade unions and social
organisations to end child labour.-VNA